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October 18, 2015

CANADA: "On the Margins"

"On the Margins" reports that 4.9 million people in Canada (or roughly 1 in 7) live in poverty.

It also provides a breakdown of poverty rates for each province and territory as well as the 20 big cities and small communities in Canada with the highest poverty rates. Toronto tops the list of big cities, followed by Vancouver and Windsor. For small communities in Canada, Campbellton, QC has the highest poverty rate.

The report comes just one day before the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty and three days before Canadian go to the polls to elect a new slate of federal MPs.

Over a third of single parents families and recent immigrants live in poverty. The poverty rate of Indigenous Canadians is 25%."On the Margins" recommends the adoption of a national poverty action plan. “With the provinces, territories and municipalities increasingly on board, anti-poverty groups continue to wonder where federal leadership is on this issue,” said Joe Gunn, Executive Director of CPJ.

A national plan must be comprehensive, the report says, addressing income security, health, housing, food security, child care, and jobs. While each of the major parties’ platforms address these issues in part, anti-poverty groups are still looking for a comprehensive, federal plan to be proposed.